In electronic devices DC to DC switching converters are increasingly used to convert a DC input voltage at one level to a desired DC output voltage at another level. Dependent on the converter topology (buck converter, boost converter, etc.) the output voltage can be lower or higher than the input voltage. In practical applications a robust control of switching converters may be a challenging task, as the controller has to cope with different modes of operation (e.g., continuous conduction mode CCM, discontinuous conduction mode DCM, feed forward compensation, etc.) which may change dependent on the actual load supplied by the switching converter. Further abrupt changes of the required load current may induce instabilities due to required mode changes (e.g., DCM to CCM when the load current drops to small values).
A robust controller design may therefore be relatively complicated. Mode changes have to be detected and the corresponding control parameters have to be reconfigured. However, mode changes still lead to undesired transient disturbances in the output voltage and instabilities may still occur in some situations, particularly when the converter is operating in its limit range or changing operating modes. Accordingly, there is a continued need for an improved DC/DC converter and operational methods which allow for a robust control of the switching converter that minimizes transient disturbances and instabilities due to load variations and/or variations of the input voltage.